Plc, Bermuda Asset Management (BAM) has substantially increased the size of its funds under management.

BAM president, Bob Richards, said the nine-year-old company has grown from having funds under management of less than $50 million to approximately $350 million in the last year alone.

Mr. Richards said: "We've done very well. We've spent a lot of time upgrading systems and getting the word out to potential clients in Bermuda. And we've had a pretty successful year in terms of increasing funds under management.'' He said BAM had always placed an emphasis not just on institutional investors but also individual investment portfolios.

Invesco Global Asset Management (IGAM) is an exempted investment management company in Bermuda, which is affiliated with BAM, and manages money from a global client base for investment in global markets.

Mr. Richards, the general manager of IGAM, said that clients are in many countries including Japan, Canada, the Middle East and other markets.

The successes of BAM and IGAM have paralleled that of Invesco, which yesterday declared a 42 percent higher first half pretax profit.

Invesco said pretax profit rose to 32 million ($49.6 million) in the six months through June, from 25.8 million last year. The company increased its dividend to 2 pence a share from 1.75 pence last year.

Invesco said funds under management rose to 58.4 billion from 53.8 billion at the end of 1995, propelled by growing markets and new investment from fund customers.